Let It Snow

A city girl not used to winter Christmases is sent to check out a resort her father is buying. There she meets the resort owner's son and you know what happens as she grows to love the snow and the resort. One good point is it seems really to have been filmed in the snow not a sound stage. Candace Cameron Bure is quite alright in this movie - not too perky not too cutesy. It is her territory the Hallmark Christmas movie. To balance things Jesse Hutch acts quite seriously so things are balanced out. Alan Thicke has a role as her father and it's quite poignant.

Finally a movie where Candace Cameron Bure isn't completely annoying!

Alan Thicke portrays CCB's father and tycoon of hip young hotels for the jet set.

He sends CCB to take stock of his latest purchase and plan how to tear it all down and make it new and edgy for their clientele.

Well what do you know but shortly after arriving and butting heads with the current owners son (Jesse Hutch) they soon begin to fall for one another!

Can CCB convince her father to keep the family charm of their new purchase?!

This is one of those Christmas romance movies that the Hallmark Channel specializes in. It stars Candace Cameron Bure as Stephanie Beck, a hospitality industry exec who is sent to the Snow Valley Lodge by her father to assess its profit potential as the newest acquisition by their firm. There she meets Brady Lewis (played by Jesse Hutch), the son of the owners of Snow Valley. From the start, it's an oil-and-water relationship, with no apparent possibility for romance.

But they do have one thing in common---they harbor no affection for Christmas, though for different reasons. Stephanie and her father do not celebrate the Christmas season. She lives in Arizona and has never seen snow fall. Brady, on the other hand, was raised with all the trappings of Christmas at Snow Valley, where they enshrine all the traditions and dedicate themselves to making the season special for their guests. However, family conflicts have soured him on the yearly celebrations.

Stephanie Beck is a role that seems designed for Bure. She does a convincing job of showing us the changes in her character. Though most of the plot is predictable, her enthusiasm carries the viewer along, to share in the magic that is Christmas.

This is a film filled with touching moments, guaranteed to satisfy true romantics.

Alan Thicke's corporation has bought the Snow Valley resort from its third generation and sends his daughter, Candace Cameron Bure, to survey it. She arrives in the middle of its Christmas season and finds love with both Jesse Hutch and the idea of Christmas in this Hallmark Channel seasonal romantic comedy.

It's a nicely written movie. Mr. Hutch is oppressed by four generations of tradition, including an elaborate series of events and recipes and even regular family guests which must be rigorously followed, with no room for the changes he wants to make. Ms. Bure feels rootless and enchanted by the order and beauty she sees about her. Add in some quite lovely camera-work of the snow-drenched landscape near Vancouver, and you have a fine holiday romcom.

Not a whole lot to say about this typical Hallmark movie. And to me that is a good thing. I'm kind of tired of the whole high-strung "grim 'n gritty super realistic" vibe of so many movies, and around Christmas I like my no-problem-everything-will-be-alright movies.

Hallmark delivers on that.

It's an enjoyable movie with actors that seem to really like what they are doing, and there's a constant undercurrent of a child-like happiness about Christmas. The leading lady conveys her slowly rediscovering of the joys of Christmas very well, with tons of odd 'n funny traditions thrown into one, giant basket, so to say. (just see what a "spinster" has to go through to see the man in her future in her dreams)

The Vancouver locations are fantastic. Snow aplenty, no need for fake snow, unlike some other Hallmark Christmas movies, and used very effectively for a bit of physical comedy.

All in all, an enjoyable (there's that word again) movie, and clean, non-convoluted entertainment.